Bobby's World: The Movie
Bobby's World: The Movie is an upcoming 2020 American-Canadian traditional 2D hand-drawn animated jukebox musical fantasy comedy film produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Don Bluth Feature Animation, Fox Animation Studios, and Valhalla Motion Pictures. Based on the 1990s Fox Kids animated television series of the same name, the film is being produced, written and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. The film follows Bobby Generic, a little boy with big imaginations, who is forced by a sinister dark lord and his wife, who both hate children, imagination, and creativity, to leave his homeworld of Bobbyland and move into Oregon on planet Earth where he meets the Generic family, who adopted him, and his next-door neighbor, who is a little girl named Jackie. Bobby's World: The Movie is set to be released in the United States and Canada on August 16, 2020, in 2D, Digital 3D, RealD 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through Fox Searchlight Pictures. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Seth Rogen, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Reese Witherspoon, Nick Kroll, Emily Blunt, Gary Oldman, Kristen Bell, Miranda Cosgrove, and Owen Vaccaro. Summary Bobby Generic is a young boy with big imaginations that used to live at his homeworld of Bobbyland. One day, his home was under attack by Lord Reality and his wife Lady Reality, two sinister dark rulers who hate children, imagination, and creativity. In order to get away from them, he packs his stuff and uses the magic fairy pixie dust on him, which lifts him up into the outer space, as he leaves his home and moves into Oregon on planet Earth where he meets the Generic family, who adopted him, and his next-door neighbor, who is a little girl named Jackie. At first, Bobby has some difficulties adjusting to his new life, but he manages to pull through. Unfortunately, Lord Reality has designed a plot, with help from Lady Reality, to destroy Bobby and take over planet Earth. This leads both Bobby and Jackie on an epic journey to save the world from Lord and Lady Reality's wrath and bring imagination and creativity back to children everywhere. The treacherous quest takes Bobby and Jackie through some of Earth's most valued places including San Francisco, Hollywood, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, Anchorage, Honolulu, Mexico City, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Athens, Berlin, Suez, Cairo, Tokyo, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Dubai, Kolkata, Beijing, Singapore, Mumbai, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Auckland, Invercargill, and Antarctica. And all the while, the pair are pursued by Lord and Lady Reality's henchmen/army and a relentless "tough as nails" hitman called Mr. Von Terrible. Plot Somewhere in the galaxy, there is a place called Bobbyland that is located in the smallest star, which can only be found in the imaginations of children everywhere. Bobbyland was home to a sweet little boy named Bobby. One day, Bobby is wandering around in the forest having fun. Little does he know that he's being watched by a dark lord named Lord Reality and his wife Lady Reality. The two dark rulers live in a business building-like mansion in the city of BusinessVille. BusinessVille is located on an Earth-like planet, which is a lightyear away from Bobbyland. As Lord Reality and Lady Reality are watching Bobby on a video transmission from his video telescope satellite that is above Bobbyland, they get annoyed with his silly childish behavior and his obsession with imagination and creativity. They hate Bobby and want to get rid of him, so Lord Reality sends his army to destroy the boy and his world. Back in Bobbyland, Bobby is sitting in the shade watching clouds in the sky until he sees several ships flying on top of his world. The ships later attack and destroy the world with their laser beams. Bobby barely escapes the destruction of his land, packs his stuff, and uses the magic pixie dust on himself, which lifts him up into the outer space. Bobby flies away from the dying Bobbyland, which then exploded into millions of pieces, and crash lands into a yard in Oregon on planet Earth in the night. The next morning, Bobby wakes up as he sees a generic family, the Generics, who discovered him in their yard, the same yard Bobby crash landed into. They welcome him and invite him over to their house for breakfast. Due to the parents and the children going off on their regular routine, Howard and Martha Generic take Bobby to Uncle Ted. At first, Bobby is reluctant to see him but he soon finds out that he is actually a nice person with a calm and welcome heart. They end up spending a lot of quality time together and meet friends along the way (including Jackie). Meanwhile, in BusinessVille, Lord and Lady Reality have realized that Bobby is still alive, and tell their army how greatly the people will outnumber them and worry that Earth will eventually rebel against the city. The next day, a mailman (who is actually one of Lord Reality's henchmen), gives a letter to the Generic family saying they have to repossess Bobby for good. The parents refuse to give him up, but after Derek slaps himself and frames Bobby for doing it, Martha throws Bobby out of the house. Feeling betrayed by his new family, Bobby runs away and leaves Oregon. However, Jackie follows him much to his shock and cheers him up by letting him go on a road trip journey with her. Later, Lord Reality opens up a successful pizza restaurant in Oregon and starts selling them to the people. However, the pizza gives them weird side effects such as growing an antenna and yodeling at the wrong time, among many others. Nevertheless, they were harmless. In San Francisco, TBA. In Hollywood, Bobby and Jackie visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame where they see names of famous actors, actresses, singers, and other celebrities (including Seth Rogen, Eddie Murphy, Stan Lee, Will Ferrell, Taylor Swift, Cameron Diaz, Amy Poehler, Jimmy Fallon, Idina Menzel, and even Howie Mandel himself). They also encounter Paul and Benny who are waiting for two hired people to make money for them. Paul and Benny, (both thinking that the two children were the people that they just hired to make money) remark that they are even younger than they thought they would be and say that they have to give them a bunch of money in order for them to be rich. Thinking that they will make a bunch of money easily while going on a journey, Bobby convinces Jackie so that they could not only get rich but also go to Oregon again with said money. After visiting Grauman's Chinese Theatre, a newly developed Lord Reality's Pizza Parlor (where the robots take a picture of both of them), Planet Hollywood, and the Hollywood sign, Bobby and Jackie become mistaken as trespassers and end up in the Wells Fargo bank. They accidentally end up stealing money as well as a tricycle and have an idea what they have been hired for. They escape and tell some of the police about the truth which arrests Paul and Benny. After all the commotion, Bobby and Jackie go to Walmart, where a cashier and all of the shoppers laugh at them. The cashier tells them they won't last ten minutes at the store. Moments later, the two don't know where they parked the tricycle. Bobby and Jackie realize that they have been in the store for twelve minutes and begin laughing at the cashier, who is dumbfounded by their record as they continue on foot. Meanwhile, Lord Reality learns that Bobby is on a journey with Jackie and hires a professional mercenary named Mr. Von Terrible to ensure that Bobby and Jackie will not go around the world and come back home to Oregon. In Las Vegas, Bobby and Jackie find a tricycle at an auction bid inside the Excalibur hotel and casino. They think of a plan to distract the people so they can get the tricycle. Unfortunately, the plan doesn't work and Bobby criticizes Jackie for this as the latter realizes her mistake. Bobby then washes his hands and when he uses the soap dispenser, it breaks, leaving a secret tunnel in the hotel. This sends them into the auction bid, where they are not caught but scolded at the auction bid manager who thinks that they are stealing. They escape with their tricycle as mayhem ensues in the hotel. In Oregon, Kelly and Derek Generic see that everyone has grown an antenna, which is a red sphere attached to them via an extra strand of hair. After a school student tells them that Lord Reality is giving away free pizza to people for free at his pizza parlor, they go to confront him. Kelly and Derek figured out that Lord Reality has been destroying planets for years and he let the Generic family repossess Bobby unfairly. They decide to call the police to arrest him, but before they leave the pizza parlor, Lord Reality activates a mind-control device, revealing that the pizza is actually a mind-control pizza. Kelly and Derek try to escape but the door gets locked and the enslaved citizens corner and capture them, taking the last opposition to Lord Reality and Lady Reality as their army brings the people of Oregon to BusinessVille. Bobby and Jackie continue their journey in Miami. However, not all of the city is safe as there is a bunch of crime, poverty, income inequality and housing costs that far exceed the national median. To save each other from any other danger, they turn to the Extreme Life-Hacker to help make money, receiving a ludicrous job of stealing a precious jewel in New York City. On their journey to New York City, Bobby and Jackie meet a coffeemaker named Sarah who gives them a tip to find the jewel. They find it at the Museum of the City of New York but are caught by Lord Reality's robots (who are disguised as safety guards). The two barely escape and interrupt Sarah's date with her boyfriend Tom at the Tavern on the Green. Chaos ensues when the robots are discovered and Bobby and Jackie manage to escape before everyone else ends up getting an invitation to Lord Reality's pizza parlor which recently opened in New York City last night. Meanwhile, in BusinessVille, Lord Reality introduces Lady Reality to the Monster Energy serum. He tests it on a lizard and it becomes rabid and indestructible. This causes Lady Reality to have some concern over his slowly-growing power-hungriness, but Lord Reality tells her that they can do it together as a team. She agrees to it and sends more of their army to make more pizza parlors around the world. In Anchorage, TBA. In Honolulu, TBA. In Mexico City, Bobby and Jackie meet a two-language speaking Italian guy named Buzzy. He invites them over to his house and they help him celebrate his birthday party. The plan works but when Bobby and Jackie leave after the party, they find the tricycle being inspected by a bunch of creepy-looking safety inspectors and hitchhike on a truck bound for Toronto. More plot details coming soon! In a scene that plays after the first part of the closing credits sequence, Derek Generic tells Bobby a horrible secret that someone told him about Fox and Disney together, but before he continues to talk, all references to the secret have been reduced with an announcer praising the two companies. Derek Generic tries again to tell Fox and Disney's horrifying secret to the viewers only to get cut off by the second part of the closing credits sequence. Cast *Matthew Broderick as Robert Adelvice "Bobby" Generic, a 4-year-old little boy with his big overactive imagination on how he sees the world. Bobby has spiky black hair. In Bobbyland, he wears a white sailor-like hat with black tassels, white shirt with short sleeves, blue navy sailor collar with white stripes, blue shorts with two white buttons, white socks and black Mary Jane shoes. On Earth, he wears a white shirt with red short sleeves, red shorts, and blue sneakers. He's the main titular protagonist of the movie. *Reese Witherspoon as Jackie, Bobby's next-door neighbor/classmate/love interest with the floor-length pigtails who is the main deuteragonist of the movie. She has a crush on Bobby and always kisses him, which he hates, and hugs him, which he loves. She speaks with a monotonic voice. *Nick Kroll as Lord Reality, a sinister dark lord who hates children, especially Bobby, imagination, and creativity. He's the main antagonist of the movie. *Emily Blunt as Lady Reality, Lord Reality's wife who, like him, also hates children, imagination, and creativity. She's one of the two secondary antagonists of the movie. *Gary Oldman as Mr. Von Terrible, a relentless "tough as nails" hitman who is hired by Lord Reality and Lady Reality to exterminate Bobby and Jackie. He's one of the two secondary antagonists of the movie. *Chris Pratt as Howard Generic, Bobby's father. *Elizabeth Banks as Martha Generic, Bobby's mother who often punctuates her speech with phrases like "Fer corn sakes", "Fer cryin' in the mud", "gee golly", "gosh darn", and "don't 'cha know". *Miranda Cosgrove as Kelly Generic, Bobby's 15-year-old tomboyish bully sister. *Owen Vaccaro as Derek Generic, Bobby's 10-year-old brother who always teases and insults Bobby and tends to call him a "dork". *Kristen Bell as Aunt Ruth, Martha's sister who is Bobby's aunt. *Seth Rogen as Uncle Ted, a fun-loving fellow who is Bobby's uncle. He's also the brother of Martha and Ruth. *Keith David as the narrator of the movie. *Frank Welker as Roger, the Generic family dog. *Steve Buscemi as a news reporter. *John Ratzenberger as an animated caricature of himself. *Patrick Stewart as an animated caricature of himself. *Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as Paul and Benny, respectively. They both live in Hollywood and believe that Bobby and Jackie are the people they hired to make money for a movie. *Patrick Warburton as a Walmart cashier. *Bill Hader as The Extreme Life-Hacker, who hacks life for the people of the world. *Sean Giambrone as Sammy, the Extreme Life-Hacker's trusted assistant. *Denis Leary as Agent Alan. *Jason Bateman as Mike, Agent Alan's sidekick. *Seth MacFarlane as Brian, Agent Alan's second sidekick. *Chris Pine as Tom, a man who has a love relationship with Sarah. *Kristen Schaal as Sarah, a coffeemaker in New York City, who is nice and sweet to the people. She also has a love relationship with Tom. *Conan O'Brien as a driver. *Ally Maki as Jenna. *Michael Peña as Buzzy, a two-language speaking Italian guy who lives in Mexico City. *Michael Cera as TBA. *Kristen Wiig as TBA. *Gal Gadot as TBA. *Kimiko Glenn as Yosha, a girl who befriends Bobby and Jackie. She lives in Tokyo. *Jacob Tremblay as Timmy, Yosha's little brother who also lives in Tokyo. He also has a secret superhero alter-ego named Super-Timmy. *Charlyne Yi as TBA. *Salma Hayek as TBA. Popular culture cameos and references Coming soon! Production Development Bobby's World: The Movie was long-planned; In November 2014, it was announced that Mandel told a crowd at Comikaze that plans to revive the series were in motion. In May 2015, Fox Searchlight Pictures greenlit the animated Bobby's World movie in production. Mandel was concerned after watching animated films with his family, about the challenge of Bobby doing something more cinematically-consequential and inspiring without losing the charm of the series. "To do a big 112-minute feature film about Bobby getting lost in his own imagination would be a big mistake. This has to be Bobby on a grand-scale adventure. That's where all the action, heart, and comedy are coming from, having two characters, Bobby and Jackie, an imaginative little boy and a little girl who has a secret crush, on this dangerous odyssey with all the odds and evens against them." Howie Mandel signed Nicholas Stoller, Genndy Tartakovsky, and Conrad Vernon to direct the film. Writing There was difficulty finding a story that was sufficient for a film, and the crew did not have enough time to complete such a project, as they already worked full-time on other animated films. The crew was initially worried that creating a film based on a 90's TV series would have a negative effect, as they did not have enough people to focus their attention on this project. As the film progressed, additional artists were hired so that the film could be done on time. The "strongest possible" writing team was assembled, with the film's directors and executive producer, Greg Grabianski, Robert Mittenthal, and Jon Vitti being selected. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger both joined the writing team later. The film's original plot had Bobby being kidnapped and chosen as "the special one" while his family is trying to find him; an obvious reference to both animated films, The LEGO Movie, and Finding Nemo, this was later said by Howie Mandel and Conrad Vernon to be a "joke" plot to keep fans of the show busy. For the official plot of the film, the writers created an epic mythical hero story: The destruction of Bobbyland, Bobby moving in with the Generic family, and an evil lord's plan, which brings Bobby and his next-door neighbor Jackie on an epic quest. The first full cut of animatics and storyboards for the film were over two-hours long, which is uncommon for animated films, and the directors attributed this mostly to the writing team and their approach of adding as many elements to the film as they could at the outset with the intention of seeing what it could "handle" and then shaping the film from there. The final runtime will be between that and 90 minutes, the standard length of an animated film, with a balance, having to be found, between the expectations of an animated film that will have a large child-based audience and the requirements of the story which the directors felt were similar to many grand-scale animated films especially due to a large number of characters in this film. Casting Howie Mandel is rumored to reprise his role as Bobby. Mandel later announced that he will be serving as executive producer and that he will return as Bobby Generic. The rest of the cast was announced in September 2018. Animation Animation began in October 2018. Howie Mandel rejected making a CGI film, calling the film's animation "a tribute to the world and art of traditional hand-drawn animated films". He said that he would not like it if the film was CGI and that it would destroy the hearts of people who grew up with Bobby's World. The film was produced in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, to distinguish it from the looks of the Bobby's World TV series and was colored by the same palette behind said show. The animation was directed by Chris Bailey and Matthew O'Callaghan and supervised by veteran animators, James Baxter, Eric Goldberg, and Frans Vischer. All three animation supervisors also helped redesign the characters from the show. "One of the ideas that got us excited to work on Bobby's World: The Movie together was that we were going to be expanding it from the ground up." Eric Goldberg, one of the animation supervisors said. "This is the first time Bobby has ventured outside of Oregon and into the great unknown. We decided to literally expand the world by changing the aspect ratio of the picture from the TV series to widescreen (2.35:1). The wider image really pushes the sense of scale and puts you in the big wide open world right alongside these characters. The best way to experience the scale and to see the amazing detail in this film will be to watch it on the big screen." Most of the in-house animation crew of the film were from many different animation studios, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, DHX Media, Duncan Studio, and Warner Bros. Animation. The animation was done by Don Bluth Feature Animation in New York City, New York. Additional animation production work was divided among eight studios: Yowza Animation in Toronto, Canada, Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, Canada, Mercury Filmworks in Ottawa, Canada, Toon City Animation in Manila, Philippines, Wang Film Productions in Xindian, Taipei, Taiwan, Digital eMation/Rough Draft's division in South Korea, and Warner Bros. Animation in Burbank, California. The stereoscopic 3D conversion and the stereographic animation was done by StereoD in Burbank, California. The storyboards, designs, visual development, layouts, backgrounds, character animation, and visual effects were done in America while the outsource studios completed the additional animation, inbetweening, digital ink and paint, and animation rendering before being shipped back to the United States for animation checking, compositing, and editing. Roger Deakins, Alexander McDowell, and Raymond Zibach signed on as visual consultants for the movie. The three consultants tackled with the idea of a three-dimensional traditional-animated film. Because of this, the camera moves both differently than many of the hand-drawn animated films and similarly to a live-action film. Post production Don Bluth, Christopher Boyes, Gary Goldman, Gary Rydstrom and Randy Thom, the sound designers of the film, used a combination of sound approaches. Some of the sound effects are cartoony while others tend to be more realistic. Music In May 2019, it was confirmed that Alan Menken and Christopher Lennertz would compose the score for the film. Menken and Lennertz previously composed the score together for the R-rated CGI animated film Sausage Party. The two felt that the score was a "unique challenge" as they had to "try and express the style of Bobby's World without wearing the audience out". They used the opening theme from the series, but they did not want to overuse it. Songs Also in May 2019, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz were announced to compose and write seven songs for the film. Menken and Schwartz previously wrote songs together for Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted. Soundtrack Coming soon! Release This film is set to be released on August 16, 2020, in 2D, Digital 3D, RealD 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through Fox Searchlight Pictures and will be rated PG-13 for action/peril, rude/suggestive humor, mild language and thematic elements throughout. More coming soon! Short film The film will be accompanied by a short animated film based on Tedd Arnold's book, No More Water in the Tub!. Marketing The voice cast appeared at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con International to announce the movie and present a clip highlighting traditionally-animated films, along with footage from Bobby's World: The Movie, which is done entirely in storyboards. The footage, which was screened exclusively for the panel, received strong audience reaction with traditional animation fans "literally jumping on the floor once the footage played." In October 2018, the first clip was released on YouTube for one day only. Trailers and TV spots *The first teaser trailer will be released on April 2019 and will be shown before Avengers: Endgame, Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, The Secret Life of Pets 2, Toy Story 4, and The Lion King. A "teaser reaction" video, introducing the new characters, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Chris Pine, Bill Hader, and Kristen Schaal will be released the following day. *An exclusive extended trailer will be released at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2019, and will be later shown at the D23 Expo in August 2019. *The second teaser trailer will be released on September 2019 and will be shown before Spies in Disguise, Abominable, The Addams Family, Sonic the Hedgehog, Frozen 2, and Star Wars: Episode IX. *The first theatrical trailer will be released on January 2020 and will be shown before The Mitchells vs. The Machines, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, Peter Rabbit 2, Nimona, Onward, Mulan, an untitled Sony Pictures Animation film, and Trolls World Tour. *To promote the 3D technology that is utilized in this film, a 3D trailer will be shown during Super Bowl LIV. *The second and last theatrical trailer will be released Sunday, May 10th, 2020 on Fox during The Simpsons and will be shown before Scooby, an untitled Pixar film, Minions 2, the untitled Bob's Burgers movie, and The SpongeBob Movie: It's a Wonderful Sponge. Theatrical release promotions *Fox will air a Bobby's World marathon Saturdays on July 2020. *20th Century Fox Home Entertainment announced that they will release Bobby's World: The Complete Series on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital HD, February 19, 2020. Video game Coming soon! Director's cut A director's cut of the movie will be released on December 25, 2020, in theaters for one night only. Home media Coming soon! Reception Box office Coming soon! Critical response On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 235 reviews, with an average score of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bobby's World: The Movie expands upon the titular character's world with fluid animation, great characters, a spectacular voice cast, and slick writing that will make some of today's animated movies look pedestrian." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale. Ken Jaworowski of Time Magazine praised the cast, and described them as having "elevated their vocal work to a craft that goes way beyond simple line readings". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a rare "A+" grade and applauded the film's creative team for "upholding the bars of traditional animation". Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the directors for "rediscovering hand-drawn traditional animation" and for "a funny yet daring journey for the characters". Andrew Barker of Variety praised the film for "being downright funny and adventurous". Although he felt the film was too long and the 3D elements were bugging him, he said the film would prove "popular among kids and adults alike." Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film five out of five stars, saying "The spirit of traditional animation remains true to its source. In other words, it's cheerfully random and spectacular." The Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review claiming that "It is clever, ridiculous, and ageless." Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times also gave the film a positive review saying that "somewhere in the film's colorful imagery, fresh animation, and well-balanced script, we might begin to realize that we’re watching a terrifying satire about the ways that a life without imagination makes monsters of us all". IGN gave the film a 9.5 out of 10 "Amazing" score, saying that "The colorful action and adventure should delight children, but the smart and humorous script makes it definitely appealing to grown-ups." Trivia Gallery Transcript Trailer transcripts Credits Title sequence Category:Films Category:Films about musical theatre Category:Comedy films Category:Fantasy films Category:Jukebox musical films Category:Musical films Category:Cartoons animated with Adobe After Effects Category:Cartoons animated with Toon Boom